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Pace champion lifter attains his goal

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Pace High School weightlifter Tom Piscopo signs a letter of intent to attend Northern Michigan University on Thursday during a ceremony at the school gymnasium. Piscopo is joined by his parents Tally and Gerry and school principal Stephen Shell, top left, and coach Mickey Lindsey. Ben Twingley/btwingley@pnj.com

Pace High School students and family watch as weightlifter Tom Piscopo signs a letter of intent to attend Northern Michigan University on Thursday during a ceremony at the school gymnasium. Ben Twingley/btwingley@pnj.com

Pace High School weightlifter Tom Piscopo signs a letter of intent to attend Northern Michigan University on Thursday during a ceremony at the school gymnasium. Piscopo is joined by his parents Tally and Gerry. Ben Twingley/btwingley@pnj.com

Pace High School students watch as weightlifter Tom Piscopo does interviews after signing a letter of intent to attend Northern Michigan University on Thursday during a ceremony at the school gymnasium. Ben Twingley/btwingley@pnj.com

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Pace High School weightlifter Tom Piscopo signs a letter of intent to attend Northern Michigan University on Thursday during a ceremony at the school gymnasium. Piscopo is joined by his parents Tally and Gerry.(Photo: Ben Twingley/btwingley@pnj.com)Buy Photo

The letter that informed Tom Piscopo about a possible college future was handed to him during his physics class at Pace High School.

How appropriate, since he's defied human physics as a 154-pound, state champion weightlifter.

More than a year later, the reality of that inquiry occurred Thursday when Piscopo was honored at Pace with his signing at Northern Michigan University, which is one of the designated U.S. Olympic Training Sites for the sport.

He will be part of a weightlifting club competing in national and world competition and training as part of Team USA Weightlifting.

"This has been a big dream of mine for the longest time," said Piscopo, a two-time Florida state champion at 154 pounds, who can bench press double his weight. "And I don't know how to show emotion other than when I lift, but I am really excited.

"I didn't really know there were scholarships for this. I wanted one, but I didn't think they existed."

So forgive him for thinking the original inquiry last year was another small-college football school looking to present academic aid to fill out a football roster. Piscopo was a defensive back for the Patriots as a freshman and sophomore.

"I have a really good GPA (grade point average) and a lot of schools just look for guys that can play football to fill out their teams," said Piscopo, who had no interest in doing that.

But when he read the first sentence of the letter, it was from Vance Newgard, the head weightlifting coach at the U.S. Olympic Training Site at Northern Michigan. Piscopo suddenly felt a rush of emotion.

"I thought, this is cool. And I have been excited about it every since," he said. "I got in touch with (Newgard). I starting talking with him. I trained with them for about a week in August (2014). I loved it up there.

"It's beautiful in the summer time. I got to venture around this park on Lake Superior. so it was really exciting."

All the better, he will be joining with Milton High's Brandon Reyes, who signed with Northern Michigan last month. Reyes finished second in the 169-pound class at the state championship meet. He placed third last year.

"I know him well," Piscopo said. "I am making sure we room together and I will make a mission to compete against him. We will try to beat each other every day."

No one came close to beating Piscopo this season at 154 pounds. He won the state Class 2A title (highest classification for weightlifting) by outperforming runnerup Aaron Gipson of Orlando University Christian by a 50 pound difference (625 total to 675).

Piscopo had a 300-pound bench, a 325 clean-and-jerk in winning back-to-back titles.

"He had a great two years," said Mickey Lindsey, who is the Patriots' weightlifting coach in addition to his role as the long-time football coach. "His clean-and-jerk lift is unbelievable. It is that special.

"The way he works and his commitment, we might see him one day (at Summer Olympics) I would not be surprised. He has the talent, the special abilities and work ethic to do it."

Piscopo opted to give up playing football to focus on weightlifting prior to his junior season.

"I started (competitive weightlifting) when I was 14," he said. I love doing it. I played football, but I didn't really play football. I existed. I was just out there.

A lot of times at practice I would try to save energy so I could have it at weightlifting practice the next day. That was my mindset at football.

To improve his mindset in weightlifting, Piscopo studied world class lifters from around the world. He would look up their videos on YouTube and though he couldn't understand Chinese or German, he would grasp enough to improve his own skills.

He's been a self-taught champion.

"He spends hours and hours working on it in the weight room," Lindsey said. "His technique, his fundamentals are about perfect. That is why I don't know what the ceiling is on him and how far he could go.

"He's got a chance. Anybody who can lift as much weight as he lifts with his size has got a chance."

Bright future

•The next 30 days will be a special time for Pace High senior Tom Piscopo. Among the highlights:

•He turns 18 on May 20.

•He graduates from Pace on May 23.

•He leaves for college at Northern Michigan on May 24.

•He begins training in the 154 pound class at U.S. Olympic Training Site at Northern Michigan for national competition. He expects to room with Milton High's Brandon Reyes, who finished as state runnerup in 169 pound class.